Asteroid Lutetia

The inferred location of Suspicio crater on the unseen southern hemisphere of asteroid Lutetia (marked in blue). The hidden crater could be up to 45 km in diameter – the blue outlines correspond to diameter estimates of 15, 30 and 45 km, respectively. The crater is inferred based on the numerous grooves or ‘lineaments’ seen concentric to the crater in the northern hemisphere of the asteroid. There are no image data available for this side of the asteroid, as can be inferred from the blank shape model.

Lutetia was imaged in July 2010 by ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft, while en route to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta took images of the 100 km-wide asteroid for about two hours during the flyby. At its closest approach, Rosetta was 3162km from Lutetia. In the image shown here, north is up.

The inferred location of Suspicio crater on the unseen southern hemisphere of asteroid Lutetia (marked in blue). The hidden crater could be up to 45 km in diameter – the blue outlines correspond to diameter estimates of 15, 30 and 45 km, respectively. The crater is inferred based on the numerous grooves or ‘lineaments’ seen concentric to the crater in the northern hemisphere of the asteroid. There are no image data available for this side of the asteroid, as can be inferred from the blank shape model.

Lutetia was imaged in July 2010 by ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft, while en route to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta took images of the 100 km-wide asteroid for about two hours during the flyby. At its closest approach, Rosetta was 3162km from Lutetia. In the image shown here, north is up.

Looking face on at the North Pole Crater Cluster (purple outline) on asteroid Lutetia, with Massilia to the lower left (red outline). Marked on the image are the concentric grooves or 'lineaments' associated with the large craters. The lineaments coloured blue infer the presence of a large crater – nicknamed Suspicio – on the unseen portion of Lutetia. Yellow denotes lineaments not associated with any of the craters discussed in this study.

Lutetia was imaged in July 2010 by ESA's Rosetta spacecraft, while en route to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta took images of the 100 km-wide asteroid for about two hours during the flyby. At its closest approach, Rosetta was 3162km from Lutetia. In the image shown here, north is towards the observer.

This anaglyph 3D image of Lutetia can be viewed using stereoscopic glasses with red-green or red-blue filters. The two images making up this image were taken several minutes before Rosetta's closest approach to the asteroid on 10 July 2010. The left-eye view was captured at 15:41:39 GMT from a distance of 4274 km from Lutetia's surface and the right-eye view at 15:41:03 GMT from 4038 km (closest approach was at 15:45 GMT).

A portion of asteroid Lutetia, looking into the 55 km-wide Massilia crater (red circular outline) with the North Pole Crater Cluster (NPCC) in the distance (purple outline). The grooves (or 'lineaments') are coloured according to the crater to which they are associated, i.e. red for Massilia and purple for NPCC. The blue lineaments are associated with the 'Suspicio' crater, while the yellow lineaments are not associated with any crater discussed in this study.

Lutetia was imaged in July 2010 by ESA's Rosetta spacecraft, while en route to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta took images of the 100 km-wide asteroid for about two hours during the flyby. At its closest approach, Rosetta was 3162km from Lutetia. In the image shown here, north is up.

Approach images of Asteroid Lutetia. The first image was taken at 06:18 (about 9.5 hours before closest approach, 510000 kms from the asteroid), the last one at 14:15 (about 1.5 hours before closest approach, 81000 km from the asteroid.). The resolution changes from 9.6 km/px to 1.5 km/px.